There is
also a gender diversity issue among people who like to learn about gender gaps.
Among attendees of weekly WAPPP seminars last semester, the percentage of men in
the room never got above 30 percent. And when 60 people crowded into the room for a particularly
well-attended session on “Race, Gender and Dynamics of Social Hierarchy Reversal”, only 7 of them were men – 12 percent.

This is
disappointing to me. I want to discuss gender with women and men, because
social and political implications of gender affect all of us. Instead I face
the situation that Debora Spar described best:

“All too often, women are scared
of raising the topic of gender with men, thinking it will brand them as
radicals or troublemakers, while men are terrified of saying or doing anything
that might classify them as politically incorrect. The result, of course, is
that no one says anything productive at all.”

This observation stood out to me as a rarely-acknowledged truth, even though it was not the focus of her article.

In an
attempt to spark dialogue, I asked a few of my male
colleagues at the Harvard Kennedy School to share some thoughts on gender in the
context of their personal and professional experiences. I will feature their
posts over the next couple of weeks.

If you are a male reader interested in
contributing to these guest-blogger series, please contact me at anya_malkov@hks13.harvard.edu,
and let’s talk about gender!